Who is cruising the world

[Zzmeyer]

Asked about trend over time the only data I had was the Baja Haha. In 1994 the median length was 40 feet, 2 feet shorter than today. The same percentage of boats were over 50%, but substantially more were less than 35 feet.
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[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I've not done any real analysis on the subject, but seems to me that the ARC is an expensive thing to do, and attracts a relatively affluent clientele with newer and bigger boats than one typically meets in cruising destinations around the world.

To some degree, the same can be said for most rally venues... the participants have enough spare money to be willing to pay to make a voyage that can be done for free on their own. My guess is that this skews the data on boat size, marque and age.

To make a crude comparison, if you did an analysis of boat size in the ports of the French Riviera and in say La Paz, you would get vastly different lengths as "average".

Jim

There are a bunch of different ARC run rallies now, including a Pacific rally. Be interesting to see if their Pacific rally also attracts larger boats.

I was in Shelter Bay Marina, Panama once when the ARC World came thru like a swarm of locust...man those folks are in a hurry...they do a circumnav in 15 months!

Very goal oriented bunch.

[Zzmeyer]

So true about different cruiser goals. Last year in San Jose del Cabo, MX. I was berthed between two boats, one had come through the Northwest passage (having done a circumnavigation in about 18 months) and one who sailed around the Horn to avoid "those damn canal fees?"

[Kaiaofmaui]

Hi trying to get hold of Mike O..Is that possible on this thread? He gave me same blue prints for our boat. A few years back and was hoping to get a new copy.if it helps with this thread I'm cruising the world in a rafiki 37 and before that a westsail 32 (this is not the norm ) thanks

[CatNewBee]

There is a around the world ARC, also one over the Atlantic west to east via the Azores.

Any way, not representative to world cruisers.

There are 2 sorts of people joining the ARC, one are racers that join the event proudly every year to compete each other and earn some fame plus serious party going. They are not cruisers, but more sport oriented.

The second and probably the largest group are Newbees, that have never crossed a big water area and want the seminars, safety checks, some socializing and the kick in the butt to learn the lines and cross somewhat safely guided the ocean, many prospect cruiser and liveaboard beginner there, often with kids or with invited crew. That is also the reason for the many new vessels here. Yacht deliveries are exceptions in the ARC, they take place when the new owner wants to join the passage in the safest possible way. Usually crewed deliveries go straight over the ocean, time is money and the ARC is waste of money and time. Deliveries took place at any time, not only once a year.

Than there is the Anti-ARC, also beginners and cruisers that start individually about the same time just for the safety of a crowded passage knowing the ARC with many boats is around in a distress situation.

Than there are liveaboards an cruisers coming to the Canary islands after the ARC to prepare for the crossing after Xmas, unorganized and self-sufficient.

If you want the real figures, look at all the other boats not joining rallies.

If you want data about circumnavigators, get data from panama canal crossings, 95% pass here, 5% go the roaring 40s or the maghellan strait, this are the points where you cansort out serious circumnavigators from casual cruisers mainly because this bottlenecks are either expensive or very challenging and a around the world cruise must pass one of this points at some stage.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Kaiaofmaui

Hi trying to get hold of Mike O..Is that possible on this thread? He gave me same blue prints for our boat. A few years back and was hoping to get a new copy.if it helps with this thread I'm cruising the world in a rafiki 37 and before that a westsail 32 (this is not the norm ) thanks

Best to start a new thread rather than this getting buried in an unrelated topic.

[Mike OReilly]

There’s always going to be limitations with any dataset. I agree rallies like the ARC don’t provide a sampling of all cruising boats out there, but it is a sampling of a significant portion. At least it’s an attempt.

Looking at choke points like the Panama is probably a better sampling method. If someone can get at this dataset, that would be great. But I suspect it is a commercial product that comes at a high price.

And even using data like this is going to produce different biases. For example, there are a large percentage of cruisers who stay in one regional area (Caribbean, Mediterranean, northern Europe, east/west coasts of NA, etc…). These people are still cruisers, but most will never see the Panama Canal.

Jimmy Cornell does do a survey of world cruising boats every five years. This report only looks at numbers, not types, of boats, so it’s not getting at the same questions Zzmeyer is asking. But Cornell’s is the most global survey I’m aware of:

https://cornellsailing.com/2017/08/j...-the-boats-go/

Kaiaofmaui, I sent you a private message. Happy to chat about your Rafiki. Glad to hear you’re out there, showing that you don’t need a 42’+ boat to go cruising .

[AZUS]

Your observation that the high-production boats are highly represented got me thinking. I'd love to know the percentage of a brand's production that is out and about the world, as opposed to sailing close to home or used for day sailing. (Nothing wrong with that - we did it for many years.)

As the only example I know well, our boat is a catamaran built in Argentina, the Antares 44i. We find it the perfect bluewater, liveaboard boat for us, a couple. Ours, Valleycat, lies in south Sicily after we sailed her across the Atlantic, and we sail the Med season there (until we bring her back in a few years). Almost all of the Antares production we know of are out and about in almost every ocean of the world.

I'd be interested in what other brands/models are used almost entirely for voyaging.

[straightman21]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

I've not done any real analysis on the subject, but seems to me that the ARC is an expensive thing to do, and attracts a relatively affluent clientele with newer and bigger boats than one typically meets in cruising destinations around the world.

To some degree, the same can be said for most rally venues... the participants have enough spare money to be willing to pay to make a voyage that can be done for free on their own. My guess is that this skews the data on boat size, marque and age.

To make a crude comparison, if you did an analysis of boat size in the ports of the French Riviera and in say La Paz, you would get vastly different lengths as "average".

Jim

This is spot on regarding the ARC and similar. I also read somewhere [can't find the link] that the average length on the ARC has increased substantially over its history.

[Paul Howard]

I completed a circumnavigation of the world (1983 to 1988) with myself, wife, daughter, 6years old, son 4yo, on a 30ft steel boat that I bought as a bare hull and completed in the back yard in 2years, launched and two years later sailed away. Canada, Atlantic Islands circuit, Caribbean, Panama, NZ, Aus, South Africa, South America, Canada. We were smaller than most boats with four onboard, though there were a lot of boats that size with couples. There were a lot more families with children on boats of less than 36ft then than now. Recent cruising, 2016/7 (Bahamas, Cuba, Canada on a 37ft catamaran) was mostly much larger boats with retired couples onboard. Smallest boat doing ocean crossing we met was a British guy in a 16ft cuddy cabin boat met in South America. Smallest boat cruising in company in many of the same oceans during our circumnavigation was a Dutch couple on a 25ft boat.

[Zzmeyer]

Paul, Thanks so much for sharing. We bought our first boat, a Pearson 31 in about 1976. No cruiser in their right mind would sail with roller furling anything. Pre loran, rdf was our only electronic navigation device. Very few boats had radar. Our tiller pilot steered well, though. No self tailing or electric winches. The 31 was about as big a boat as I felt comfortable with. My 50 footer, with electric and furling everything with a bow thruster is easier to day sail. Although I still have and use a sextant for fun I think I must have a dozen GPS and half a dozen chart plotter/cell phone charts aboard.

[MickB]

It would be interesting to see a similar analysis of the Go East from Gold Coast to Noumea, Go North from Cairns to Indonesia (very new) and the New Zealand to Fiji rallies. Ive only witnessed one (Go East) rally depart but believe there were less than 40% production boats and possibly a higher percentage of cats. Hull construction material would also be an interesting comparative statistic as I noted a lot of steel, aluminium and at least one ferro amongst the mono's and composite hulls amongst the cats.

[Scott Berg]

I'd guess that the memberships of SSCA and the OCC would give a different set of data points?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Scott Berg

I'd guess that the memberships of SSCA and the OCC would give a different set of data points?

Good idea.

Too bad we can’t survey all CF members. That too could be another useful dataset.

[Shrew]

This title is misleading. "Who" has no bearing on the scope of the thread. "Boat Length" is the only variable and the data sample is small and somewhat skewed.

Boat length based on participants of large, organized group passages.